Fish and Wildlife Service November 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act, we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability of a draft habitat conservation plan (HCP) in support of an application from Skookumchuck Wind Energy Project, LLC, an affiliate of Renewable Energy Services (applicant), for an incidental take permit (ITP) for the marbled murrelet, listed as threatened under the ESA, and the bald eagle and golden eagle, both of which are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Incidental take is expected to result from the operation of 38 commercial wind turbines and associated infrastructure located near Centralia, Washington, in Lewis and Thurston Counties. Also available for review is the Service's draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), which was prepared in response to the application. We are seeking public comments on the draft HCP and DEIS.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have received an application for a permit to conduct activities intended to enhance the propagation and survival of endangered plant species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. We invite the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies to comment on this application. Before issuing the requested permit, we will take into consideration any information that we receive during the public comment period.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are publishing a draft list of the nonnative bird species that have been introduced by humans into the United States or U.S. territories and to which the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) does not apply. The Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act (MBTRA) of 2004 amends the MBTA by stating that the MBTA applies only to migratory bird species that are native to the United States or U.S. territories, and that a native migratory bird species is one that is present as a result of natural biological or ecological processes. The MBTRA requires that we publish a list of all nonnative, human- introduced bird species to which the MBTA does not apply. We published that list in 2005, and are starting the process to update it with this notice. This notice identifies those species that are not protected by the MBTA, even though they belong to biological families referred to in treaties that the MBTA implements, as their presence in the United States or U.S. territories is solely the result of intentional or unintentional human-assisted introductions. This notice presents a draft list of species that are not protected by the MBTA to reflect current taxonomy, to remove one species that no longer occurs in a protected family, and to remove one species as a result of new distributional records documenting its natural occurrence in the United States.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), have received an application from Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for an incidental take permit under the Endangered Species Act. The permit would authorize take of the federally endangered unarmored threespine stickleback, arroyo toad, the federally threatened California red-legged frog, and non-listed Santa Ana sucker, western spadefoot, two-striped garter snake, and western pond turtle incidental to otherwise lawful activities associated with the inspection and maintenance of the Foothill Feeder water conveyance pipeline in the draft habitat conservation plan prepared for the project. We invite public comment.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to designate critical habitat for the candy darter (Etheostoma osburni) under the Endangered Species Act (Act). In total, approximately 596 stream kilometers (370 stream miles), in Virginia and West Virginia, fall within the boundaries of the proposed critical habitat designation. If we finalize this rule as proposed, it would extend the Act's protections to this species' critical habitat. We also announce the availability of a draft economic analysis (DEA) of the proposed designation of critical habitat for the candy darter. Elsewhere in the Federal Register today, we published a final rule listing the candy darter as an endangered species under the Act.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), invite the public to comment on applications to conduct certain activities with foreign species that are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and foreign or native species for which the Service has jurisdiction under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). With some exceptions, the ESA and the MMPA prohibit activities with listed species unless Federal authorization is issued that allows such activities. The ESA and MMPA also require that we invite public comment before issuing permits for endangered species or marine mammals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) uses a collision risk model (CRM) to predict the number of golden and bald eagles that may be killed at new wind facilities. The model incorporates existing information on eagle exposure and collision probability in the form of prior distributions (priors). The Service has updated the priors for both species of eagle and, on June 21 of this year, announced the availability of a report of the analysis conducted to generate the new priors (83 FR 28858). The notice solicited public comments on how the Service should use the new bald eagle priors. Today's notice reopens the comment period for 30 days, and provides additional information requested by commenters.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, invite the public to comment on applications to conduct certain activities with foreign species that are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). With some exceptions, the ESA prohibits activities with listed species unless Federal authorization is issued that allows such activities. The ESA also requires that we invite public comment before issuing permits for endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is extending the public comment period for the revised draft environmental impact statement (RDEIS) addressing an amendment to the 1997 Washington State Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) State Lands Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to cover the implementation of a Long-Term Conservation Strategy (LTCS) for the marbled murrelet. The RDEIS also addresses an amendment to the Endangered Species Act incidental take permit for take of marbled murrelet resulting from the implementation of the LTCS. The Service jointly developed the RDEIS with the WDNR. The RDEIS is intended to satisfy the requirements of both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Washington State Environmental Policy Act. If approved, the proposed LTCS will replace an interim marbled murrelet conservation strategy that is currently being implemented under the WDNR HCP. Extending the comment period will allow more time for the public to review the RDEIS and submit comments.